"Final Broadcast is a 3 piece band from Denton Texas. Singer/guitarist-Ian Messerli, bassist-Tony Bustamante and drummer-Bill Kensik, formed the band to share their love of writing, recording and performing. Ian had spent years toiling away by himself, writing and recording countless songs but missing out on the volley of ideas that comes from working with other musicians. He dabbled in every genre of music trying to find a style that represented who he was as a songwriter. Finding someone who understood where he was coming from was challenging until he found a kindred spirit in Bill Kensik. The band itself started with a chance meeting between Bill and Ian through mutual friend and original bassist Keith Faulkner. The creative chemistry shared by the two of them fueled a great combination of rhythm and melody that sparked a true musical bond. Bill's mix of power and intricacy behind the drum kit brought an urgency and strength to the songs Ian had been developing. Although started in 2018, the band didn't really take shape until the addition of Tony Bustamante. Tony and Ian spent years touring and performing as founding members of the Dallas Pop Rock band Valve, and the opportunity to work together again proved to be effortless and fruitful. His addition brought a rich and stylized sound that truly fleshed out what Final Broadcast has become. Drawing from influences ranging from 90's Alternative, Shoegaze, Brit Pop, Classic Rock and even some Electronica, the sound that they have cultivated is both new, and reminiscent of the sounds of the past. With brute force drumming, the punishing growl of the bass, a swirling buzzsaw of guitars, and melody filled vocals, there is a wall of sound coming from this trio."

strange dude, great songs, better band. bring a dog, buy ya a beer. fire it up

"On his new album See You Next Time, Texas-bred singer/songwriter Joshua Ray Walker shares an imagined yet truthful portrait of a brokedown honky-tonk and the misfits who call it home: barflies and wannabe cowboys, bleary-eyed dreamers and hopelessly lost souls. His third full-length in three years, the album marks the final installment in a trilogy that originated with Walker’s globally acclaimed 2019 debut Wish You Were Here and its equally lauded follow-up Glad You Made It (the #5 entry on Rolling Stone’s Best Country and Americana Albums of 2020 list). “The whole idea with the trilogy was to use the honky-tonk as a setting where all these different characters could interact with each other,” says Walker, who drew immense inspiration from the local dive bars he first started sneaking into and gigging at as a teenager growing up in East Dallas. “In my mind, this album’s taking place on the night before the bar closes forever—the songs are just me taking snapshots of that world, and all the moments that happen in it.”"

"""Dark Thoughts, one of the few pop-punk bands it’s OK for hardcore folks to like."" Dark Thoughts: Must Be Nice 12” (Stupid Bag) Dark Thoughts’ 3rd LP is out, and I think it’s their best one yet. If you heard the first two, this one is a little different, with less of a stylized, Ramones-influenced sound. There are very few bells and whistles (except for the literal bells on the climactic closing track), and an apparently simple formula: take some smart and heartfelt lyrics, find a 3 or 4-chord progression that goes along with their tone, and bash it out as power chords with Ramones-style drums playing at an appropriate tempo (mid-paced to super fast, depending on the tone). For most bands, that would be a fast track to a bunch of generic and boring songs, but for Dark Thoughts the minimal ornamentation highlights how great these songs are. The lyrics give me all the feels (as the kids were saying in the not-too-distant past), and every track has the fist-pumping, energetic and anthemic sound that makes Dark Thoughts one of the few pop-punk bands it’s OK for hardcore folks to like. The overall tone and vibe is similar to what I consider the peak period of Screeching Weasel, i.e. their run of LPs from My Brain Hurts through How to Make Enemies and Irritate People, but if you whittled those records down to the faster, darker tracks like “Hanging Around,” “The Science of Myth,” “Every Night,” etc. Like most of the individual tracks, the LP is short, but it's such a thrilling listen that I often play it a few times in a row, something I rarely do with other records. I’ve been playing Must Be Nice since the digital version first went online back in December, and it shows no signs of leaving the “current listening” pile any time soon. - Daniel Lupton, Sorry State Records"